As the population grows and as traditional building methods become increasingly expensive, it has become more desirable for prospective homeowners to use prefabricated modular elements such as floor frame assemblies in building new homes. Such floor frame assemblies, with or without walls, roof, windows and doors and similar superstructure, are normally manufactured at one location and, then, towed along public highways to their ultimate destinations to be mounted on permanent supports in a safe and stable manner.
Every jurisdiction has local housing codes and the like that apply to such structures. Manufacturers thereof, therefore, design the same to satisfy the Uniform Building Code (UBC). In addition to satisfying such requirements, as persons skilled in the art will appreciate, the prefabricated structure must be transported in a safe and stable manner at highway speeds, a fact which requires that the structure being transported be capable of exposure to incidental bouncing and shock loading without significant deleterious effects.
In order to reduce the overall costs to the ultimate purchaser, it is highly desirable to design the structure so that it is transported to its permanent destination in a manner that allows detachment therefrom and retrieval for reuse of the wheel carriage assembly and the towing hitch assembly that were utilized during transportation. Although considerable work has been done in the field of this invention in meeting the needs outlined hereinabove as, for example, exemplified in my own patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,716,267, 4,015,375, 4,106,258 and 4,019,299, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, there still exists a need for an improved towable unified floor frame assembly that satisfies the UBC, is easily and safely transportable to its ultimate destination and from which the wheel carriage assembly and towing hitch elements can then be readily detached and retrieved for reuse.